What Now?

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

WB Darin A. Lahners

I had a local brother, Jim Licquia, email me this weekend asking me to write a column to address some questions he had. While it’s too early to assess this, I will attempt to answer his questions, because they are questions that all of us have thought about during this crisis. Because Jim and I are both members of Illinois Grand Lodge, I will be using the framework of things we do in Illinois to answer him. If it doesn’t apply to your jurisdiction, then it doesn’t apply to you.

His questions are:

1. How do we, as Masons, stay connected to our Craft?

2. What will be left of us when the lockdown ends?

3. How much will we have lost, and what can we do to rebuild?

My answer to the first question brings up some more questions:

How did you stay connected to our Craft before this?

A. Did you only feel connected by attending stated meetings and degrees? Indeed, we can’t meet in person and hold fellowship, but we can still meet. I see social media flooded with virtual opportunities for Masonic Education and Fellowship.

Aside from that, set up a virtual check-in for the Brothers in your Lodge, or at least check up on them. Make sure they don’t need anything. Most of the Lodge business that your Lodge has can be taken care of either by holding a virtual meeting or via email.

B. Are you making use of the 24-inch gauge? You should be using this time to improve yourself by learning new rituals or refreshing the existing ritual that you know. You should be practicing floor work in your home. If you’re a Deacon, are you practicing your rod work? If you have a broom, you have a rod. Practice. Practice. Practice. We all have that one book about Freemasonry that we’ve been meaning to read. Take the time to read it.

C. Are you using this time for non-Masonic self-improvement? After all, we like to advertise that we take good men and make them better. Self-improvement isn’t solely Masonic. Use this time to practice mindfulness, learn a new skill, pick up a new hobby, and reconnect with your spouse and/or family.

To summarize; your connection to the Craft should not be any different than it was prior to this crisis, because you always should be making an effort to maintain that connection. The environment might have changed, but the effort you need to put forward remains.

In Illinois, at the conclusion of a 3rd Degree, many Lodges allow the newly raised Master Mason to address the brethren attending and have the Brethren attending go around the Lodge room and introduce themselves. Ultimately, I always hear someone tell the new Master Mason, “You get out of Freemasonry what you put into it.” While there is a level of truth to this, I abhor this phrase. I have always felt that we’re giving the new Master Mason an excuse to not put in any effort towards the Craft because we’re not holding him accountable. All of the degrees in Illinois end with a Charge. They are mostly to the candidate, but in the 3rd degree, there is a charge to the Lodge as well. One of the definitions of Charge is to impose a duty, responsibility, or obligation on. What we should be saying is: “Live your charges”. If you are doing this, then you shouldn’t have any questions about your connection to the Craft.

The second and third question are I think are pretty much the same.

2. What will be left of us when the lockdown ends?

3. How much will we have lost and what can we do to rebuild?

I’d like to say that the Craft won’t see any adverse effects from this. However, I’d be foolish to answer that way. There will be some impact. However, it is probably too soon to make any concrete conclusions. We will need to assess after this is all done. I don’t know when that is going to be.

Much of this is going depend on how much we’re allowed to have contact, if we’re going to be allowed to meet in groups larger than 10 people, there is so much unknown at this point that I can’t give a definite answer. I will do my best to address this based upon what I think may happen. Once again, this is just my opinion.

Many of you may have already been negatively impacted by the pandemic. It may have impacted you negatively due to losing your job, a loved one, a Masonic Brother, or a friend. To those of you that have, my heart is broken for you, and my prayers go out for you. Some of us who haven’t been impacted may still be impacted at some point. We might experience some form of loss before this is said and done. We might see cases of someone who used to be active to become inactive because of their loss. We might lose a Brother who did a certain part during a degree, or who was an integral member of your Lodge. We may see Brothers walk away from the Craft. We might see some Lodges close or consolidate. We may have to change the way we do our floor work to conform to social distancing guidelines. We may have to wear masks. There is too much uncertainty right now for me to give a concrete answer regarding what has been lost. However, one thing is certain. The Craft may have to change, but it will endure.

Freemasonry is officially 302 years old if you count the start of the first Grand Lodge of England on June 24, 1717, as its birthday. We know it to be much older. The Regius Poem is the oldest document that makes reference to Masons, and it was printed around 1390 and was a copy of earlier work. My point is that the Craft is much older than its official birthdate, and it has already survived darker periods of history. It will continue to survive. During this time, it has evolved. It will continue to evolve.

How do we rebuild?

I don’t think we will have much to rebuild. We may have to share some more of the load in our lodges to replace those that have been lost. What I hope to see come from this is a stronger Craft. I hope to continue to see the virtual education and fellowship opportunities after this, but that we don’t replace the in-person experience with a virtual one. I hope that we see men who hadn’t thought about joining the Craft previously think about joining because they will feel a need to have some male bonding or fellowship with other males after being locked away with their families for months, or because of the impact that your Lodge is having on your community during this crisis due to their charitable efforts. While we may see some Lodges fold, or consolidate, I believe that this just accelerated the inevitable. If a Lodge isn’t bringing in new members or providing its current members with a reason to show up, then it was already doomed. What we will see is the energy of a rejuvenated membership, and I’m excited about what that energy will do.

I will end the article with some lyrics from the song “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk. While maybe it’s not the most Masonic message in the song, but I think the beginning lyrics of the song are appropriate for the end of this article because it talks about new beginnings without losing one’s identity.

"Like the legend of the Phoenix

All ends with beginnings

What keeps the planet spinning

The force from the beginning

(Look)

We’ve come too far to give up who we are

So let’s raise the bar and our cups to the stars..."

~DAL

WB Darin A. Lahners is the Worshipful Master of St. Joseph Lodge No.970 in St. Joseph and a plural member of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL), and Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL). He’s a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville, a charter member of the new Illinois Royal Arch Chapter, Admiration Chapter No. 282, and is the current Secretary of the Illini High Twelve Club No. 768 in Champaign – Urbana (IL). He is also a member of the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. You can reach him by email at darin.lahners@gmail.com.

Fair and Fowl Correspondences

by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor

RW Spencer A. Hamann

The thoughtful pupil of Freemasonry cannot help but be pleasantly astounded by the various correspondences, both designed and serendipitous, which permeate our Craft. These corollaries irrevocably link the philosophy of the Craft with the whole of the human experience, if one only deems to pull the thread.

Consider the origin and formation of the first Grand Lodge. There is hardly a Mason who has not read or been told the anecdote: four early 18th Century Lodges in London, England decided that in the interest of unity they ought form a “Grand Lodge” or central regulatory body. On Saint John the Baptist’s day in June of 1717, the very first Grand Master (one Anthony Sayer) was duly installed at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House in Saint Paul’s Church Yard.

For many, the story ends here, relocated to little more than a piece of trivia or a few sentences within a handbook. In truth, there is not a great deal on the written record about this event, save for some accounts both before and after the formation, and a few paragraphs in Anderson’s Constitutions. Besides additional research that can be done upon the climate of early Freemasonry, geography, and some of the men present, there appears to be little more to consider about the event.

Let us momentarily take a step back from this topic, and instead turn our attention to a figure of classical Greek Mythology. Orpheus, son of the musical muse Calliope and Oeagrus, King of Thrace, is particularly noted as a musician of exceptional skill. The music he plays on his lyre (an ancient stringed instrument somewhat akin to a small harp, and a thread which itself leads to fascinating occult musical and mathematical correspondences with Pythagoras) has supernatural abilities to charm humans and nature itself, even overpowering the spell of the Siren’s song.

As the myth goes, Orpheus marries the beautiful Eurydice, who not long after their marriage is bitten by a snake and perishes. Overcome with grief, Orpheus journeys into the underworld where he is met with numerous challenges and obstacles in his attempt to bring back his love. So great is his resolve and skill that he uses his music to persuade Hades to allow him to retrieve Eurydice. However, Hades sets one stipulation: Eurydice may follow Orpheus out of the Underworld, but Orpheus is not to look back or Eurydice will remain in the Underworld forever. Orpheus and Eurydice journey out of the Underworld, but as they are on the brink of escape, Orpheus is overcome with a terrible fear that his wife may not be following him. He turns to see if she is still behind him, and in doing so, both sees her faithfully there and loses her forever.

After Orpheus returns to the world of the living alone, he spends the rest of his days in quiet worship of the Sun (Apollo). There are multiple versions of how Orpheus died, but one widely recounted version expounds that he is murdered, playing his music until the very end. He is then transformed into a swan (a possible corollary to the concept of a “swan song”), and the muses place him and his lyre amongst the stars in the heavens.

Interestingly, in classical Astronomy, the 2nd Century AD astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) included the constellation Cygnus, the swan, amongst his 48 recognized constellations. Ptolemy also lists the constellation Lyra, the lyre, which closely neighbors Cygnus. These constellations both in name and proximity can be viewed as an astronomical representation of the Orpheus myth, and are still visible and recognized today in modern Astronomy.

Further tracing the Liberal Arts, as Western Art Music and specifically opera developed, the Orpheus myth was a favorite of early narratives. It is not difficult to see the appeal: the protagonist is a musician who uses music to supernatural effect during the story, and essentially “dies” and returns from death (the underworld) during the story. In fact the earliest surviving opera, written by Italian composer Jacopo Peri (1561 – 1633) and premiered in 1600, was titled Euridice and is essentially a telling of the Orpheus myth.

Whether fans of the form or not, most of us are already very familiar with a part of an Orpheus-inspired opera: the theme “Galop Infernal” from 19th Century French composer Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus opera Orphée aux Enfers, which is more lovingly known as a tune and dance craze by the name of the “Can-Can”.

The mythical, astrological, and musical associations with Orpheus have made him a popular figurehead for performing arts troupes over the centuries. Indeed there have been numerous societies and guilds which have taken up the moniker over the centuries, including the Swan & Lyre Musical Society, which has been active for over 500 years in England.

What does any of this have to do with Freemasonry, or the founding of the first Grand Lodge? As many a philosopher and Mason have asserted over the centuries: the answer lies in the pub. The Goose and Gridiron Ale House, a seemingly nonsensical name, is in actuality a parody of Swan and Lyre, the name of a musician’s guild which also met at the public house. Upon examination, the parody name makes perfect sense: a goose is a bird similar in build to a swan, and a lyre with its many strings, when turned sideways does indeed resemble an iron cooking grate (gridiron). While it is unclear if the pub was named Goose and Gridiron from the start, or if it was actually first named Swan and Lyre and became lovingly referred to as the Goose and Gridiron (in a similar way as one may acknowledge a certain global hamburger proprietor as “the golden arches”), by 1717 the pub was widely known as the Goose and Gridiron, and had a prominent sign hung above its facade with the image of a long necked bird and many slatted rectangular shape.

What becomes additionally interesting is the parallel between the myth of Orpheus and the Craft Lodge Masonic legend of Hiram Abiff. While specifics of each story vary, both tell of an extraordinary individual who leaves the realm of the living and rises back up from the realm of the dead to an ultimately higher realm. This transformation and transmutation through death can also be found in the doctrines of many religions and philosophies, including as Christianity and Alchemy.

Whether our early Brethern made a conscious choice based on symbolic correspondences when they chose the Goose and Gridiron Ale House as the birthplace for the first Grand Lodge is a matter of speculation: there has been no known documentation to surface with any evidence to confirm such a claim. However there need not to have been a deliberate and philosophical decision made to bring this together satisfactorily: even coincidences, by definition, are remarkable events, and whether wrought by the hearts and minds of men or drawn on a far greater trestleboard than they can comprehend, the universe is found to be a remarkable place when one only deems to pull the thread.

~SAH

RW Brother Spencer has a vast and varied set of skills and interests, and boundless curiosity. Drawing inspiration from his love of music and engineering at an early age, Spencer began apprenticing to learn the luthier’s art as a high school freshman in 2003. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Musicology, focused on Organology. He now works professionally as a luthier, managing workshops in Illinois and Wisconsin, completing repairs and restorations of fine string instruments, and providing education on instrument history and maintenance. Spencer also enjoys performing music on a variety of instruments, is an avid collector of fine tools, frequently takes commissions for custom work within woodworking, and restores typewriters and bicycles among other antiques. Curatorship and adding value are core to his personal philosophies. Spencer was Raised in 2013, served Libertyville Lodge No. 492 as Worshipful Master from 2017-2018, and currently serves the Grand Lodge of Illinois as their Grand Representative to Wisconsin, District Education officer for the 1st NE District, and is a Certified Lodge Instructor (CLI).

The Sign Said, "Alterations"

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bill Hosler, PM

The sign on the dry cleaners window said “We do alterations” down the street from the house we rented in our new town. We had several articles of clothing which needed to be cleaned and I had several trousers which needed alterations, so we stopped by the cleaners one evening before they closed to drop off our goods.

As the young lady was checking in the laundry items I mentioned to her I have these several pair of trousers which needed to be altered. “ Oh, we don’t do alterations” the girl replied. Shocked at her statement I pointed at the window behind me and said “But your sign says “we do alterations.” She muttered something to the effect that they used to offer the service but they don’t offer it anymore. This led me to feel angry and to certain extent like they were trying to fool me “False advertising” flashed through my mind.

Since we couldn’t get the service their sign promised we collected our clothing and decided to go somewhere else. I walked out of the shop angry, and let down and to be honest feeling a bit cheated. What I felt was that, the shop lied and engaged in false advertising. Even now a year later when we drive by the establishment I look at and the sign is still in place and I wonder if other people were conned into shopping there by their falsehoods (Since there is no place else within an hours drive that provides this service I’m sure quite a few.)

I’m sure many young men have watched the DaVinci code or National Treasure or read on the web about the cool things Masons do and how our teachings will make a “Good man better” and possibly have subsequently left the Fraternity, feeling the way I did as I exited that shop. You walk into a location expecting to receive the service advertised by the business and walk out disgruntled and confused.

When a young man submits his petition and check for his initiation he expects to receive training and guidance in ways that will make him a better man, husband, father and maybe even a better citizen to the country in which he lives. Even more so, a more tolerant man who will learn to serve the deity in which he believes. Does a secretary reading three meetings worth of minutes, for thirty minutes make him a better man? About the same chance as putting a spatula in his hand and expecting Masonic enlightenment to find him while flipping pancakes will.

Anyone who has ever counted on drawing new and returning customers to their business knows you will never satisfy every customer who walks through your door, but to intentionally or even unintentionally use untrue advertising to drive new business to your location will in many cases bring the opposite effect. It might cost you traffic.

Everyone has heard of “Word of mouth advertising”, which is when each unsatisfied customer will tell his family or friends about his dissatisfaction (Or sometimes with is satisfaction) with your services and his experience could prejudice several people who might walk through your door. Think about how many times you have chosen, or not chosen a restaurant after looking at a businesse' Yelp reviews. So when we as Freemasons place “Making good men better” on all of our recruitment literature we had better be prepared to offer that service or we will continue to see our new new members walk right back out the door whence they came, and will tell their friends and coworkers, "...don’t bother joining."

I guess my point is, if one continues to deliver bad service or engages in misleading advertising to a customer base, eventually you will anger most of your customer base and their experience will prejudice others willingness to give you a try. So when we tell young men we “Take good men and make them better.” and we give them shoddy degree work, baloney sandwiches to eat and luke warm Kool-Aide to wash it down before an evening of minutes and arguing over the price of paper towels for the mens room, it might be hard to explain that these things will make you a better man and these poor men will feel hurt and cheated.

~BH

WB Bill Hosler was made a Master Mason in 2002 in Three Rivers Lodge #733 in Indiana. He served as Worshipful Master in 2007 and became a member of the internet committee for Indiana's Grand Lodge. Bill is currently a member of Roff Lodge No. 169 in Roff Oklahoma and Lebanon Lodge No. 837 in Frisco,Texas. Bill is also a member of the Valley of Fort Wayne Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Indiana. A typical active Freemason, Bill also served as the High Priest of Fort Wayne's Chapter of the York Rite No. 19 and was commander of of the Fort Wayne Commandery No. 4 of the Knight Templar. During all this he also served as the webmaster and magazine editor for the Mizpah Shrine in Fort Wayne Indiana.

Broken Columns

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

WB. Bill Hosler

Thomas Wolfe once wrote “You can't go home again.” I have never understood what that quote meant until recently. The other day I found out my mother lodge, Three Rivers #733, has ceased to exist. In July of 2016 it merged with another lodge in the building in which we met. Even though I haven't been a member of this lodge for a few years, I am very saddened by this news. I feel like a part of me has died.

The lodge was started in the late 1940’s by a group of Freemasons who all worked at the International Harvester truck plant in my hometown of Fort Wayne. The group originally started out as a friendly Masonic club called “The Corinthian Club,” and eventually the group decided to form a lodge and requested dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Indiana to form a lodge to work.

In 1948 they received the dispensation they sought and became Three Rivers Lodge UD, named in honor of the three rivers on which which the city of Fort Wayne was established at the head of three rivers: the Saint Joseph, the Saint Mary's and the Maumee Rivers, where the original War of 1812 was established.

In 1949 Three Rivers lodge was presented with their charter by the Grand Master of Masons in the State of Indiana and received by Brother Ward Bailey, Three Rivers lodge’s first Worshipful Master, at a special ceremony in the Fort Wayne Masonic Temple.

Three Rivers was never a prosperous lodge. It never had a large membership but they became well known in northeastern Indiana; every year the lodge would hold a square dance as a fundraiser in the Masonic Temple ballroom. For several decades the dance was well attended, and a good time was always had. The lodge also became well known for performing the Masonic play “A Rose Upon the Altar” and would travel all over the tristate area to perform the play to Masonic audiences.

Our lodge also discovered that a lodge in London, Ontario in Canada had been established by Masons who were employed by the International Harvester company just like the founders of our lodge. In fraternal friendship, the two lodges began to meet each year, one year in the lodge in Canada, the next year at our temple in Fort Wayne. A dinner was held and one of the lodges would perform degree work to exemplify how degrees were performed in that jurisdiction. This happened for several decades.

For many years the lodge was held together by several well respected Past Masters. True Masons in every word. These Brothers would guide the Brethren with sage advice and years of experience, and never in a pushy way. Every sitting Worshipful Master would seek them out and ask their advice on how to proceed on matters. (I know I did)

But sadly, like everything on this earth, time goes by, and these columns of the lodge began to deteriorate crumble. When I joined in 2002, several of these brethren were still able to attend lodge. Even though many of us younger men had assumed roles performing the ritual, these men were still able to assume a role in a pinch.

My first few years were wonderful. Our lodge was always well attended. We would open our lodge, conduct business and then close. Once lodge was closed and all of the lodge paraphernalia was put away, we would all gather in the barroom of the Mizpah Shrine temple. It was a glorious time! We would sit and talk and laugh while eating dinner and enjoying adult beverages. These old columns of the lodge would regale us with stories about lodge events long past. We would laugh until the small hours of the morning. Begrudgingly, we would all begin our journeys home, even though our hearts were still in that little barroom, still spreading the cement of Brotherly love. Again, it was a glorious time, and I still think about these meetings everyday with a smile.

In 2003, Three Rivers began to have a rebirth. We received several new members who, in turn, began to introduce their friends to the lodge. In addition to all these friends we began to receive many unsolicited petitions, mostly because our lodge was forward thinking enough to have the only lodge website in the city. If someone expressed an interest in joining we would mail the person a “Membership kit” containing several pamphlets produced by the Grand Lodge of Indiana and the Masonic Service Association; included in the kit was a petition they could fill out.

It was an amazing time for our little lodge. Nearly every Monday was dedicated to candidate interviews. The first Tuesday of the month we would vote on these petitions at our monthly stated meeting. If the vote on each individual men was favorable, the next Tuesday night we conducted their Entered Apprentice degree. Since Indiana does not require Brethren to do memory work in order to advance to the next degree, they were passed to the degree of Fellowcraft the next week. On the fourth Tuesday of the month they were raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason. Sometimes we would conduct degrees for as many as five new Brethren at a time. One of the members who was responsible for the large influx of new membership push through the lodge had the idea to write an official mission statement for the lodge; that statement was “To create new Masons”.

This continued for several years. Our lodge was opened every Tuesday evening (Except during the summer months in which we were dark) through 2007. In 2006 we were amazed to discover our little lodge was one of the fastest growing lodges in the state of Indiana. Three Rivers was one of the top 10 lodges for the year. Things on the surface seemed great! Our families would gather for cookouts, birthdays and when a new baby came into our little family. A good time was had by all.

Slowly things began to change. I began to notice only a fraction of the new Brethren continued to attend lodge. The only new members who continued to attend were the group of friends who had all joined. These men not only attended but started to fill all of the leadership positions within the lodge. The little lodge which was started by employees of the Fort Wayne International Harvester plant began to become a clique and a private club for these new members.

As the old columns began to crumble more, it became apparent that most of these old columns were broken and only one or two were still standing. They were not able to carry the weight of the lodge as they once did.

Without the old columns there to carry the weight upon their shoulders, the clique continued to create the lodge into what they wanted it to be; instead of a Masonic Lodge, Three Rivers became just a club to pursue this new groups outside interests.

I demitted from my mother lodge in 2010. I honestly doubt if any of the current members even noticed. I lost contact with the lodge after that. A few days ago I heard the last “old column” laid down his working tools at the age of 87. Much like Solomon's Temple, little is left to show this lodge which had such an impact on my life had ever even existed.

It is amazing to think that in the short span of a decade a lodge can go from being one of the top ten lodges in the state to ceasing labor and merging with a lodge which at the same point in history had nearly voted to turn in their charter because of their membership issues.

In my opinion this sad tale proves one thing: Membership numbers aren't the issue. We are constantly told that we need to build membership or our Fraternity will fall upon the ash heap of history. To me this story tells me, that if membership numbers alone made a lodge, Three Rivers #733 would still be standing tall with newly built columns carrying the weight of the lodge. But sadly this wasn't the case.

In the 1960’s Most Worshipful Brother Dwight L Smith, a Past Grand Master of Indiana and lodge time Grand Lodge Secretary wrote in his book “Whither are we traveling?”:

"In all the land there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Masonic Gimmick Manufacturing Company, Unlimited, is working overtime to devise stunts to “modernize” Freemasonry, to put it in line with ten thousand other organizations that clamor for the attention of the Tribal American. Among its many products we are urged to try are these:"

• Abandon the “free will and accord” rule which has placed our Craft far above the mine run of societies, and permit outright solicitation.

• Make the service clubs. Get busy on “projects” galore in the best Babbitt fashion.

• Go into the organized do-good business in a big way. Find an area of the human body that has not been exploited. Exploit it. Set a quota, have a kick- off dinner, ring the doorbells.

• Subsidize other organizations right and left, and, in the doing, ignore, neglect and starve the parent body.

• Feminize the Fraternity. Carry “togetherness” to even more ridiculous extremes than we have already.

• Hire press agents to tell the world, like Little Jack Horner, what great boys we are. (“Masonry is not getting its proper share of publicity,” complains one Grand Master.) Never mind actions; concentrate on words.

• Imitate Hollywood. Stage an extravaganza. Bring in all the groups that ever fancied themselves remotely related to Freemasonry. Form the parade, blow the bugle, beat the drums and cheapen the Fraternity.

• Let Freemasonry “take a position” on public issues of the day. Stand up and be counted (assuming, of course, that the position the Craft takes is in line with our own pet prejudices.)

• Go all out for materialism. Raise money; spend it. Build temples, institutions.

• Subsidize; endow. Whatever can be had by writing a check, get it.

• Centralize, centralize, centralize. Pattern Freemasonry after Washington bureaucracy. Let nothing be done modestly by an individual or a Lodge; do everything on state or national level the super-duper way. Make a great to-do about local self-government, but accept no local self-responsibility.

For the most part our lodge bought into most of the above. We did everything except for what Dwight Smith suggested the fraternity should do to put its feet on the proper path which was: “Try Freemasonry”

Practicing Freemasonry works every time it’s tried. A short business meeting to handle the affairs of the lodge followed by an interesting presentation of Masonic education. Not just reading a page from the internet about George Washington written by someone else, but a real well produced presentation with a question and answer period following.

Once lodge is closed, a festive board with good food and drink, complete with toasts. Not just a baloney sandwich on a paper plate with a bag of big box brand potato chips.

Guard the west gate. Make sure all who enter are there for Freemasonry and not mercenary motives and are of good character.

Practice true Masonic charity and not some scheme to get the lodge's name in the papers in hopes of building membership.

Dues that cover the costs of running a lodge, not to quote Smith, “At bargain basement prices” to entice men to join our order. Make fundraising a thing of the past.

There are many more points I could make but I think you get the idea.

I guess what I'm saying is, the Fraternity is kind of like the dog that finally caught the car he was chasing. Now that he has caught the car, the dog is puzzled because he hasn't thought about what he would do with it if the day ever came if he caught it.

We advertise, solicit (sometimes beg) for men to join our order. Once we have his paperwork and the initiation fees we do some quick rituals and there he is, a Master Mason. What do we do with him then? We sit him on the sidelines and move on to the next candidate. After a while he quits coming because he gets tired of sitting in a chair not being used (Or worse yet he is told he ideas were tried in 1949 and they didn't work so we won't be trying that again) and after a while he quits coming.

If we are going to continue to actively search for new members we need to find things for them to do. Add them to committees, teach them ritual or better yet ask them what they want to do! An active member is a happy engaged member.

As much as I hate to see my mother lodge as a victim of our shrinking fraternity, I take some solace knowing that our mistakes may help you and your lodge strengthen your lodges columns.

~BH

WB Bill Hosler was made a Master Mason in 2002 in Three Rivers Lodge #733 in Indiana. He served as Worshipful Master in 2007 and became a member of the internet committee for Indiana's Grand Lodge. Bill is currently a member of Roff Lodge No. 169 in Roff Oklahoma and Lebanon Lodge No. 837 in Frisco,Texas. Bill is also a member of the Valley of Fort Wayne Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Indiana. A typical active Freemason, Bill also served as the High Priest of Fort Wayne's Chapter of the York Rite No. 19 and was commander of of the Fort Wayne Commandery No. 4 of the Knight Templar. During all this he also served as the webmaster and magazine editor for the Mizpah Shrine in Fort Wayne Indiana.